My husband and I took a long road trip a few years ago and spent several weeks in the Lowcountry. What a magical place! Although I haven't read Tim Dorsey (now I will) driving through this lush countryside evoked visions from Conroy and Hiaasen's books, all of which I have read. It's easy to understand how these authors were so inspiring for writer Bob Spearman.
Reading Pat Conroy, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey has always
been a joy, Pat for his vivid depictions of the lowcountry, and Hiaasen and
Dorsey for their over-the-top characters. Trying to follow the lead of these
writers has been a challenge. But like these gentlemen, I like to have a
message or deal with a social issue in my stories.
Turf and Surf,
with its bumbling villains who can’t get out of their own way, begs for the
salvation of the vacation paradise environment. The characters are meant to be
caricatures and extreme. It’s a fun story of those who battle for their vision
of what this seaside vacation paradise should be. The desires of local
residents, summer workers, tourists, and drug lords collide in a dramatic
ending. If you have been to Myrtle Beach, or a beach resort like it, you will
recognize the setting, the bars, the amusement parks, and hotels. Inserting
real places always seems to be a favorite for readers who can visualize the
story in a familiar context.
Illegal activity, wild summer nights, corrupt police and a
kidnapping terrorist on the loose help build a suspenseful tale at the beach.
Many readers have asked about a sequel. Maybe is my answer, but not currently
in the story queue.
Turf and Surf blurb:
A popular beach haven hides some dirty secrets in Bob
Spearman’s thrilling debut novel, Turf
and Surf.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has long been known as a
go-to tourist destination. But beneath the sunny exterior lies a dark power
struggle between locals, summer workers, tourists, and drug dealing gangsters.
Among them is Bo Jr., a young man whose dreams of paradise
quickly turn into a nightmare when he stumbles across a mob-owned bar and is
soon recruited as a hit-man-in-training.
Meanwhile, best friends Edna and Evelyn navigate the
perilous world of romance while their landlords, the volatile Eddie Rondell and
his meek wife, Vera, have their own ideas about how the town should be run.
Events converge to a dangerous day of reckoning as a
serial kidnapper terrorizes summer workers and a new drug gang attempts to make
a claim of their own.
My second novel,
Hard
Road, deals with a more serious subject. The story is filled with suspense,
but the real story swirls around the Hard Road of mental illness. The two main
characters battle separate villains, and suffer from different mental illness
issues, but they come together for survival. More open dialogue on this subject
is required, but I didn’t want to write a book that preached to readers. I
wanted to write a good story where people could relate issues from their own
lives and families. Almost every reader who has discussed the issue with me has
shared a personal experience. We need to dilute the stigma of the illness to
help find a cure,
and this story is my attempt to help
ignite the dialogue.
Bob Spearman is a child of the Lowcountry, the coastal
area of South Carolina. Myrtle Beach and Charleston have provided exquisite
backdrops to craft his fiction.
After thirty-eight years working and living in four states
as an engineer and manager for high-tech companies, Spearman returned home to
South Carolina and opened a technical consulting firm.
Writing had always been a hobby, but in 2014 with the
encouragement of his wife and a Charleston writer’s group, he published his
first fictional, suspense novel, Turf and Surf. This story is set in
Myrtle Beach, SC.
A second novel, Hard Road, based in Charleston, SC
was published in February 2015.
As with most writers who love the craft, the pen
has not been idle. More South Carolina Lowcountry-based fiction is in work
with his third novel, Shrimping Gold.
Bob currently lives in Mount Pleasant, South
Carolina, with his wife, Barb.
Link to books on
Amazon.com:
Labels: #lowcountry #mystery #PatConory #Hiassen #humor #villians #detectives #inspiration